| Coalition of University Employees (CUE) | 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite #302, Berkeley, CA 94705 Contact CUE (510) 845-2221 (phone), (510) 845-7444 (FAX) |
COALITION OF UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES
State Headquarters: 2855 Telegraph Av., Berkeley CA (510) 845-2221 Fax (510) 845-7444
http://www.cueunion.org
Berkeley, January 16 On January 14, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Coalition of University Employees (CUE, the union that represents UC's 17,000 clerical employees), and the San Jose Mercury News and retired Physics Professor Charles Schwartz in their joint suit against the UC Regents' closed-door policies concerning UC employees' pension funds. This was the last in repeated rulings against UC, which has appealed earlier court findings favoring the employees' right to know how UC is handling their pension funds.
The immediate effect of the ruling was to force UC to hand-over minutes of an October 2002 meeting of the Regents' committee that manages the university's enormous investment portfolio.
CUE President Claudia Horning remarked "No wonder they fought so hard on this particular set of minutes - these minutes tell us things that the Regents didn't want us to know, and they prove conclusively that the Regents tried to hide those developments."
The minutes refer to UC's decision to get rid of employees in the Treasurers' office and to outsource management of UC pension funds, advising for which then went to Wilshire Associates.
The Regents' committee appeared to be eager to not disclose the facts. At the meeting, they decided to release the news on November 5, 2002, an election day, hoping that election results would distract media attention.
Pleased with the court's ruling, CUE officials are not taking their eyes off the situation. According to Horning, "We are in the process of assessing the information, and we will have a more comprehensive statement at a later date. We think it is a disgrace that the Regents wasted so much of the taxpayers' money fighting us in court, trying to prevent this information from becoming public.”
Horning continued, “If we have learned anything from the recent scandals in the financial world, it is that these decisions must be made in public, not behind closed doors. It's our money and we have a right to know how decisions are being made. When it comes to investing our money, the Regents work for us.”
CUE has already called for an investigation of Wilshire, a high-priced consultant which now advises the Regents on investing their employees' multi-billion dollar pension funds. "We are not convinced that they are fit to manage our retirement funds," says Horning, who referred to the fact that the New York Stock Exchange censured Wilshire in fall 2003, and the New York Attorney General, Eiiot Spitzer, is reportedly also investigating Wilshire.
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For more information, contact:
COALITION OF UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES
State Headquarters: 2855 Telegraph Av., Berkeley CA
(510) 845-2221; Fax (510) 845-7444
www.cueunion.org